Mulling Ski Season, Monsoons and Irrigation in New Mexico

By Emily Esterson, 6-19-06

In fact, Fleck writes, there's really no way to tell if and when the rains will come. The story about skier visits and the story about forecasting the next New Mexico rainy season very well could have run together. Fleck's piece explains conditions are now very much like those of the wet summer of 1999, after which New Mexico had one of its best ski seasons ever (over 1 million skier visits). Right now, the humidity level on our weather station is a scorching 9 percent, and the temperature 97 degrees.

In the meantime, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, which manages irrigation water up and down the valley sent out its annual newsletter, "Conservancy Today" which states a few obvious points: "2006 Irrigation Season Will Be Tough" (bold headline) and "Fire Danger High in Bosque." According to the newsletter, MRGCD has 90,000 acre feet of water in storage in the El Vado reservoir as reserves but we've already tapped into that (as it were), and despite the fact that in-flow to the MRGCD's reservoirs is at about 27 percent of normal, it seems surprising that the supply outlook for summer is rated as "adequate."

Go figure. I've often wondered what the real story is with water in Middle Rio Grande Valley. Is there enough, or not? Why isn't there more talk of conservation? Why does my neighbor think it's okay to irrigate in the middle of the day, instead of toward dusk?

These questions, along with the most important one, "when will the drought abate?" remain unanswered; all we can do is hope for some of those big, dark, high-topped boomers to show up in the next few weeks.
[End of article]